Anatoly Filatov and William Kassouf Bag Big in Event #64: $888 Crazy Eights No-Limit Hold'em
With almost 4,500 entries in the field today, the ever-popular event hit five figures in registrations, smashing the number of players in last year��s event, with the final total standing at 10,188. Of those, 561 join the 662 who have made it through in the previous flights, to play again tomorrow in Day 2 here at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino.
There were many notable faces who graced the felt and of those, the two who built the biggest stacks were Anatoly Filatov (547,000) and William Kassouf (523,000), who spun up a short stack after late regging the tournament. They go forward with a guaranteed min-cash for their efforts but they will no doubt have their eyes firmly on first place, which pays out $888,888 to the winner.
Other names to survive the monster field were Greg Raymer (383,000), Allyn Shulman (381,000), Ryan Riess (157,000), Vivian Saliba (152,000), Maria Lampropulos (86,000), and Oddschecker and PokerNews CEO Toby Bentall (142,000). Chris Moorman and Ari Engel made it to the money but were unable to progress further, with the later hitting the rail in the last hand of the night.
Defending Champion, Galen Hall, started strong but couldn��t go the distance this time. Alex Foxen, Barry Greenstein, and Niall Farrell were some of the other big names that exited before the bubble burst.
The 1,223 survivors will return tomorrow July 1st at 12 p.m. local time. There are 10 hour-long levels on the schedule, with 15-minute breaks every two hours and there will be a 60-minute dinner break after Level 25, at around 6:30 p.m. Play will begin at Level 20, with a small blind of 6,000 and a big blind of 12,000.
PokerNews will be here to guide you through all the of the action as it unfolds with live updates from the moment cards are in the air, right up until the last chip has been bagged.